Remedial appliance



April 2s, 1925.

R. GOODWIN I v REMEDIAL APPLIANCE Filed July 5, 1925 1 05 QoodazkzPatented Apr. 28, 1925.

I essencnor ooonw'm; or fwrLr-lrnrirn ILLINGIS.

v REMEDIAL APPLIANCE.

Application filed ui t, 1923. seriai No. 349,409.

'/'0 all whom it may concern:

[Be it known that 1, Roy Gooowin, a citizen of the United States, andresident of Wilmette, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented a certain new and useful. Improvement in Remedial Appliances,ofwhich the following is afull, clear, concise, and exact" description,reference being had to j the accompanying drawing, forming a part ofthis specification.

My invention concerns a remedial device especially designed for theexpulsion of gas from the stomach by manipulation by the patient. p p

' One object of the invention is to provide such a device which isadapted to sharply depress the abdominal wall immediately beneath thesternum and opposite the ends of the floating ribs in order, as near aspossible, to bring pressure upon the upper part of the stomach to expelthe gas therefrom.

Another-object of the invention is to so form an appliance of thisnature that the weight ofthe patients body may be used to effect thenecessary pressure, thereby saving a tiring of the arm muscles duringthe treatment.

A. still further object of my invention is to so conform the lowerportion of the appliance that it will co-operatewitha table, bed, orother supporting surface, to produce a suitable massaging movement ofthe device against the body.

Other features and advantages of my invention will appear from thefollowing description wherein reference is made to the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

Figures 1 and 2 are respectively side elevations of the device of myinvention;

Figure 3 isa fragmentary view of the front of the human body showing theapplication of the device, the ribs and sternum being indicated inphantom lines;

Figure 4 is a side elevation of a modified form of my invention, and

Figure 5 is vertical section thereof taken on the line 5-'5 of Figure l.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the gas ere polling device of my inventioncomprises a spherical solid 10 of wood or other material provided withan. integral protuberance 11. having an outwardly pointing V crosssection 12. As shown in Figure 2 ,this protuberance is elongated to forma ridge 13 of considerable length. I prefer to round off allof thecorners on the device so as to prevent unnecessary pain to the user.

As illustrated in Figure 3, the device is pressed against the upperabdominal wall so thatthe protuberance 11 sharply indents the region ofthe abdominal wall which lies just beneath thesternum 14 and oppositethe ends of the upper floating ribs 15. In this way it is possible todepressthe eX- treme upper part of the stomachsufiiciently to expel thegas therefrom much more effec tively than by the mere general pressureagainst the upper abdominal region, which would not create enough.pressure to have they desired result. r

Although this appliance may be used successfully. while the patient isin an upright positionorreclining on the back, the most satisfactory andbeneficial results can be obtained when the patient is lying pronethatis, face downwardly the appliance 10 resting upon atable or bed 16having amore or less fiat surface and the protuberance 11 uppermost sothat it depresses the upper abdominal region just below the sternum.l/Vhen used in this way, the protuberance 11 will protrude beyond thenormal surface of the-body, allowing thebody surrounding theprotuberance 11 to rest upon the periphery of the spherical solid 10, sothat the weight of the body is, to a considerable extent, sup ported bythe appliance generally, withv a more acute pressure at the indentationformed by the protuberance 11.

When using the device in this manner, it is unnecessary for the patientto forcibly manipulate the sphere manually. The hands may be used toposition the appliance while the body itself can be given a sufli cientoscillatory movement to cause the solid 10 to co-operate with thesupporting surface 16 to produce a rocking motion which effects a masaging movement of the protuberance 11 at that portion of the body whichis engaged by the protuberance. In this manner, the user may subjecthimself to a treatment over a considerable space of time without theusual tiring effects which are occasioned by obtaining pressure andmovement of similar appliances thriiugh the of cork or semi-resilientmaterial having a non-integral block 18 similar in conformation to theprotuberance 11 of the previously described embodiment. This block 18,which is, in fact, a triangular prism, may, if desired, be glued orotherwise secured to the cork sphere, although this is not necessary.The cork ball together with the block, which I prefer to form ofvulcanized rubber, is encased in a leather cover 19 of the typegenerally used for covering indoor baseballs and the like. I find thatmost leather or fabric coverings allow enough stretching to provide forthe protuberance l8.

Vihile I have described only these particular embodiments of myinvention, it will be understood, of course, that departures may be madefrom these specific forms which still come within the scope and spiritof my invention.

I claim:

1. A device of the class described comprising a spherical ball ofsemi-resilient material, a block in the general form of an elongatedtriangular prism with one side against the periphery of said ball, and acover tightly jacketing said ball together with said block.

2. A remedial device of the class described con'iprising a ball uponwhich the patient can lie and roll in a massaging operation, anelongated protuberance projecting from the spherical periphery of saidball, said protuberance projecting upwardly in use for localizing aconcentrated pressure on the abdominal wall below the sternum, the upperconvex surface of the ball immediately surrounding said protuberanceapplying a general pressure to the abdominal wall around said region ofconcent 'ated pressure.

3. A remedial device comprising upper and lower curved surfacespermitting the device to roll back and forth whereby the patient can lieupon and roll with the device, a protuberance projecting from the uppercurved surface of the device, said protuberance localizing aconcentrated pressure on the abdominal wall to expel gas from thestomach, the upper curved convex surface in'nnediately surrounding saidprotuberance applying a general pressure to the abdominal wall aroundsaid region of concentrated pressure.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 28th day of J une,1923.

ROY GOODlVIN. lVitnesses:

J. DAVID DICKINSON, EMILE J. BOURGEOIS.

